Free Fall

I admit, I only picked this up for Sarah Butler, seen her in a few horrors and met her in the flesh. And she's doing here what she does best. Being the victim. It's easy to spot that this is a low budget flick because there are almost no effects and the script is rather simple.

You can see it all coming and to be honest there are no surprises to catch in this predictable thriller. It's also sad to see ow deep Malcolm McDowell has fallen. He's the blockbuster in this flick but he's only for 10 minutes in it. I won't go into the story. It's so simple and cheesy sometimes that this is your no-brainer. I enjoyed it but I do understand that the day after watching it most of the people will forgot this flick. Sad to see also that Sarah after her excellent performance in the I Spit On Your Grave remake is only being typecast. Just hope it's no free fall for her career.

If you are into low budget action thrillers then you will enjoy this but if you want to think about whodunit or what's going on, leave this for what it is.

Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 2/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5

Jane Porter (Sarah Butler) works at Gault Capital. She's shocked when her supervisor Ronald Taft (Ian Gomez) tells her about a co-worker's apparent suicide jump off the building. Thaddeus Gault (Malcolm McDowell) offers her the job to replace him. She uncovers wrongdoing and tells Ronald. Ronald calls in Frank (D.B. Sweeney) to clean up the situation. Jane gets trapped in the elevator.

The writing is rather simplistic. Once she gets stuck in the elevator, the movie also gets a bit stuck. It's a hard premise to work and there is no imagination behind this to get it working. The outside story has no effect. At one point, Jane yells at Frank to "Do Something". I know the feeling. This is confined space thriller without any skills or originality.

I'm not really sure why the other reviewers (2 at the time of this writing) have given this movie lackluster reviews. I liked the movie. I remember seeing Sarah Butler in "I Spit on Your Graves," and she was fabulous in that. I've seen her in a few other things, mostly guest spots, but she is someone who should be a star. She is a really good actress. She was convincing in this movie as well.

D.B. Sweeney was good in his role, but his role was not written very good. Instead of being someone who is feared, he's the kind of bad guy who's more comical, though it's not intended. He apparently has a magazine clip in his gun that carries more bullets than any that are actually on the market, because it never seems to run out of ammo. Also, when shooting at the girl, he was more likely to hit her if she ran than if she stood in one place. Yes, he could have spent a little time at the gun range learning how to shoot. He had a disagreement with one of his colleagues, so BAM - a wrench to the old thinker solves the problem. He behaved more like a part-time thug than like the chief muscle the founder of a multi-billion dollar company would hire.

Malcolm McDowell should have been used more. Possibly, he was too much money. The film cost $1.5 million. By the look of the movie, I thought they spent more than that. McDowell, Butler, and Sweeney are not nobody's. They're not superstars either, but still.

I gave the movie a 6-star rating, because I thought it was fun and entertaining, which is really all I look for, especially for a movie like this. It could easily have been made for television. However, Sarah Butler gave a realistic performance, and I thought this movie, based on the other two reviews, was going to suck. It did not.

The story is nothing new and some of the acting was a bit wooden. However, I thought Sarah Butler (I spit on your Grave) saved the film as the lead character trapped in the lift. Her feisty performance as Jane Porter gave the movie something extra. There are some thrilling moments and the pace is just about fast enough to keep the audience's attention.

Both the writing and the acting are poor. It moves too slowly. Watch "Not Safe for Work" instead.Though the cast contains some medium-sized actors (McDowell, Sweeney), the writing is likely weighing down the project. The elevator angle slowed down the movie in my opinion. A chase through the building would have kept the tension high as it does in Not Safe. The female protagonist does not convince that there is an impending doom, and the antagonist seems to fumble and bumble more than the money one assumes was spent on his services would imply. I honestly had to take a break from watching half-way through due to lack of interest.